(Image Credit: IMAGN) Port St. Lucie police announced Wednesday, July 19, 2023, that they seized 10,000 fentanyl pills worth $300,000 and a pound of cocaine in the city's largest drug bust to date.
Washington D.C. – A Virginia man was sentenced Friday to more than nine years in federal prison for his role in a sprawling fentanyl trafficking operation that moved hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills from Southern California to cities across the United States, including the nation’s capital.
Lamin Sesay, 28, of Alexandria, received a 110-month sentence in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. In addition to prison time, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered Sesay to serve five years of supervised release.
Sesay was one of 24 defendants charged last year as part of a multi-agency investigation into a vast and lethal network of drug traffickers. The network distributed fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills, originating in Mexico and funneled through Southern California, into the Mid-Atlantic. The investigation followed the 2022 overdose death of Diamond Lynch, a young mother in Southeast D.C., which served as the tragic catalyst for a broader law enforcement effort to dismantle the distribution chain.
Prosecutors say Sesay became involved in the conspiracy through a D.C.-based trafficker, Mathias Tsegaye, who died in January 2023 from a lethal mix of codeine, fentanyl, and oxycodone. After being introduced to co-defendant Hector David Valdez, a Los Angeles-based distributor, Sesay arranged for shipments of fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills to the District of Columbia. Authorities discovered thousands of pills in Tsegaye’s residence at the time of his death.
Sesay’s communications with Valdez included plans for Tsegaye to fly to Los Angeles to acquire pills for resale in Washington, D.C. He then worked with local conspirators to further distribute the narcotics. Valdez, known by the alias “Curl,” has also been charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.
The larger investigation—conducted under the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program—has led to the seizure of over 450,000 fentanyl pills, 1.5 kilograms of fentanyl powder, and 30 firearms. OCDETF employs an intelligence-led, multi-agency approach aimed at dismantling high-level criminal organizations.
The effort brought together federal, state, and local partners including the DEA Washington Division, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with additional support from the DEA’s Los Angeles, San Diego, and Riverside field offices.
Among the co-defendants sentenced so far are Craig Eastman, 21, of Washington, D.C., who received 165 months; Marvin Bussie, 22, also of D.C., who was sentenced to 120 months; and Edgar Balderas, Jr., 27, of San Diego, who received 148 months. Others have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing or trial.
According to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the prosecution represents a coordinated federal response to the fentanyl epidemic that has ravaged communities across the country. “This case underscores our commitment to holding accountable those who profit from distributing one of the deadliest drugs in circulation today,” Pirro said in a statement.
